Jamaica Receives Emergency Oil Shipment

Posted on Fri, Dec. 27, 2002 STEVENSON JACOBS - Associated Press

KINGSTON, Jamaica - Jamaica received 370,000 barrels of oil from Ecuador on Friday in an emergency shipment intended to help the country avoid a shortage caused by Venezuela's general strike.

In another consequence of the Venezuelan crisis, an oil refinery in Curacao that is one of the world's largest, shut down production Friday, company and union officials said.

Curacao's Refineria Isla, which receives most of its oil from Venezuela, is no longer processing gasoline, jet fuel, propane or oil lubricants, after shutting down its 37 refining plants, union president Elvis DeAndrade said.

The refinery, which employs more than 1,000 full-time, will not resume production until it can guarantee Venezuelan shipments of crude oil. The last two shipments of crude arrived last weekend, and there are no plans for more, the company has said.

In Jamaica, current oil reserves in Jamaica are lower than usual, enough to last only four more weeks, said Christopher Chin-Fatt of the state-run oil company PetroJam.

"This crude is coming just in time," Chin-Fatt said. "We have enough, but not as much as we'd like."

The shipment was originally scheduled to arrive Wednesday, but was delayed for undisclosed reasons.

Before the strike, Jamaica received 50 to 60 percent of its oil from Venezuela, or roughly 400,000 to 450,000 barrels per month.

Chin-Fatt would not disclose the cost of Friday's shipment. A similar-sized shipment is scheduled to arrive from Mexico in mid-January.

"But that's a little close," he said. "We're trying to advance that date."

Industry experts predict prices could soar higher as the strike continues in Venezuela, the world's fifth-largest oil exporter.

The strike, now nearly a month old, has crippled Venezuela's oil exports as opposition leaders try to force President Hugo Chavez to resign or call a referendum on his rule.

Raymond Wright, managing director of the Petroleum Corporation of Jamaica, called an oil shortage in Jamaica unlikely, but said a prolonged strike would hurt the island. Since the strike, he said, Jamaica hasn't received benefits previously enjoyed under a long-standing agreement with Venezuela, such as no-interest loans and credits on shipments.

"Now we have to pay for all the oil up front," Wright said.

In the meantime, Wright said Jamaica would continue to buy oil from other countries.